WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) announced today the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy (FE) awarded the University of North Dakota (UND) $744,064 for cost-shared research and development projects. These projects are supported through the funding opportunity announcement, Maximizing the Coal Value Chain.

The designated funds will support FE’s Advanced Energy Systems Program by funding projects that develop innovative uses of domestic coal for upgraded coal-based feedstocks used to produce power and to make steel and high-value products—ultimately creating new market opportunities for coal. Specifically, UND will demonstrate a laboratory-scale coal-derived graphene process to produce graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide, and graphene quantum dots starting from domestic U.S. coal. These processes will be applied to advance the current state of technology, as well as maximize the coal value chain. The FE funds research and development projects to reduce the risk and cost of advanced fossil energy technologies and further the sustainable use of the nation’s fossil resources.

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